Leanne is raising awareness of her daughter’s Laila's condition (Image: East Kilbride News)

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An East Kilbride mum has spoken of her heartbreak at watching her four-year-old daughter battle with a rare form of childhood arthritis in a bid to raise awareness of the crippling condition.

Leanne Belch, from Whitehills, wants to do all she can to support the Scottish Network for Arthritis in Children (SNAC) after little Laila was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis earlier this year – a condition which affects only one in 1000 children.

Brave Laila has to endure painful weekly methotrexate injections, which are a form of chemotherapy, for at least the next two years.

There are painful side effects including vomiting, hair loss and thinning.

Laila has arthritis in multiple joints including her elbows, wrists, knees and ankles as her own immune system is attacking her joints preventing a protective lining being formed.

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“This year has been a huge learning curve for us all and I desperately want to raise awareness about my daughter’s illness and explain a little about what she is now having to cope with on a daily basis.”

The mum-of-two went on: “Watching my little girl sobbing her heart out crying in pain or doubled over vomiting in bed on a weekly basis is just awful – and that’s just the side effects from her treatment let alone the illness.

“Laila is such a lively, funny and charming little character who as a toddler ran about wild full of laughter and fun. But in a year this has changed dramatically.

“Last June I noticed Laila standing at the top of the stairs crying that she couldn’t walk down them, and she was being more grumpy in the mornings. But on Boxing Day morning while showering her, I noticed a large lump on her wrist.

“Myself and her dad rushed her up to hospital as we thought she had broken it. The x-ray came back with no broken bones but a week later another lump appeared on Laila’s other wrist.

Laila with mum Leanne and uncle Andy (Image: East Kilbride News)

“By this point I had noticed Laila rapidly becoming worse, her legs were getting weaker and weaker and she would sometimes drag one of them. Some mornings and through the night she would wake up screaming in pain.

“It was then the doctor had said it was more serious than she initially thought and an appointment was rushed through for Laila to be seen by a specialist.

“In March, at the age of just three, Laila was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, which is an auto-immune condition. She gets so frustrated as she is too young to understand what is causing the awful pain and difficulty in movement.

“I always have to take a buggy when we go out as she gets tired very quickly and sometimes her wee legs just give way on her – it's heartbreaking.

“In the morning we often have to carry her down the stairs as she is too sore and stiff to walk down them.”

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Just four weeks after Laila’s diagnosis, she was admitted to the Glasgow’s Children’s Hospital where she was put under general anaesthetic and received 10 steroid injections into multiple joints and had all the excess fluid drained away to reduce swelling.

A couple of weeks later Laila started her weekly methotrexate injections.

Leanne continued: “The methotrexate can also affect her blood count as it produces less cells and lowers her immune system and therefore Laila is in hospital every four weeks for blood tests.

“Between 10 and 20 per cent of children with her condition will develop a potentially serious inflammatory eye infection called uveitis.

“And as many as half of young people who develop uveitis could develop complications such as glaucoma, cataracts, or need eye surgery and, if left untreated, it can potentially lead to sight loss so Laila frequently has eye screening also.”

She added: “To most people Laila looks well but only myself, Laila’s dad, Paul, and big sister, Emma, see her at home when she’s struggling, upset and in extreme pain.

“What does the future hold for Laila? Only time will tell.

“We don’t know what the treatment will be in a few years’ time after the injections are finished – the doctors have told us advances are being made all the time – so at the moment we take one day at a time.”

Leanne and her family are holding a charity night on Friday, September 8, at East Kilbride Rugby Club from 7pm to raise funds for SNAC, who receive no government funding.

The charity are currently financing private swimming lessons in a heated pool to help Laila’s joints.